Namrata Sundaresan is an Indian social entrepreneur, chef and cheesemaker. She won the 2017 Nari Shakti Puraskar with Anuradha Krishnamoorthy.

Career

Namrata Sundaresan was born an

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

and moved to Chennai in Tamil Nadu after getting married. She built her career through founding an international consulting agency. Sundaresan learnt how to make cheese in Coonoor and then discussed with her friend Anuradha Krishnamoorthy becoming

cheesemakers Cheesemaking (or caseiculture) is the craft of making cheese. The production of cheese, like many other food preservation processes, allows the nutritional and economic value of a food material, in this case milk, to be preserved in concentrat ...

and employing disabled women. They set up the artisanal cheese producers Käse and their social entrepreneurship led to winning the Nari Shakti Puraskar for 2017. The awards were made to on

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

in 2018 on behalf of the Ministry of Women and Child Development by the President of India. The award is the highest award for women in India. Sundaresan is a self-taught chef. She began cooking Peruvian food in 2017 for a supper club organised by Arundhati Balachandran and Suneethi Raj of LocalXO. She visited the Gourmet Bazaar in

Coimbatore Coimbatore, also spelt as Koyamputhur (), sometimes shortened as Kovai (), is one of the major metropolitan cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyyal River and surrounded by the Western Ghats. Coimbato ...

with her cheeses in 2019. By 2020, she had cooked 25 dinners and the group planned a new series with Sundaresan making dishes from her favourite cookbooks.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sundaresan, Namrata People from Odisha Cheesemakers Indian chefs Nari Shakti Puraskar winners Year of birth missing (living people) Living people